Gibbs(STAN)
McPhillips(UCLA)
Urbina(TAM)
Morgan(UF)
Janowicz(UF)
Dillon (STAN)
(winning isn't everything. Dillon lost in 3 in crucial matches, I bet that was a HUGE factor in Stanford's win. The only player who beat Natalie comfortably was KK. USC Really should've won..)

So, I guess the best dbls team in the nation is Stanford; another reason why they dominate.

Did anybody notice that every starter on Stanford's team was selected even Dillon was considered over Sabs and KK

Interesting that UCLA is the only semifinal team without a player on the list. There were other players who stepped up and were more important for their team's run (Kristie Ahn at #2 over Kyle and Olivia over Cat at #5). Although, I think they could've at least given UCLA a spot with Cat. =) I agree with the players who made the list though.

May 22nd, 2013 01:07 PM

2nd_serve

Re: Www 2013 Ncaa Team Tournament

Part of the story is the coaches. Lele peroidized her team to perform at its best at the right moment, got contributions from the full lineup, and allowed the players to be student-athletes. Joffe's team has had an amazing trajectory, and we could expect Texas A & M to become a fixture.

May 22nd, 2013 12:40 PM

Demosthenes

Re: Www 2013 Ncaa Team Tournament

Will any of the Stanford girls have the energy necessary to make a run in the individual tournament?

URBANA, Ill. (AP) -- With Kristie Ahn back in the lineup after missing parts of the last two seasons, 12th-seeded Stanford was a different team.
The Cardinal completed a string of upsets by defeating No. 3 Texas A&M 4-3 for the NCAA women's tennis championship Tuesday night.
''For Kristie Ahn to clinch, it's poetic justice,'' Stanford coach Lele Forood said. ''She's been the missing player for us the last two years. We weren't able to get it done without her.''
Ankle and foot injuries slowed Ahn, and hurt her neck in a bus accident.
Yet Ahn was already pondering the night before about ''how sick it would be if I clinched,'' she said.
The thought kept crossing her mind during 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 win over Cristina Stancu to wrap up Stanford's 17th national championship and seventh under Forood.
''I was thinking about how absurd it was coming down to me,'' Ahn said. ''It's a big moment, highlight of life.''
Stanford (22-4) overcame a ''brutal draw,'' Forood said.
Stanford ended top-seeded Florida's run toward a third consecutive championship and knocked off fourth-seeded Georgia and fifth-seeded USC over the previous four days.
The Cardinal were the lowest-seeded team to reach the championship match since 2007.
''It was an interesting and extremely rewarding ride for us,'' Forood said. ''We had our ups and downs, but we came to play when it counted.''
The best part about the title wasn't dumping a bucket of cold water on Forood or holding the national championship trophy, Ahn said. It's the trip to the White House, just another part of the spoils.
''My team is a bunch of nerds,'' Ahn said. ''We love politics. I can't tell you the dinner conversations we have. It's too much about substance.''
When Stanford's Nicole Gibbs rallied for a 0-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, the Cardinal gained some momentum. Gibbs won NCAA singles and doubles titles last season.
''I felt bad for her,'' Forood said. ''I wanted her to find a way to get back in the match. Early in the second set, she said, 'I have to win this match. I have to do things differently.' ''
Stacey Tan secured Stanford's other singles victory, a 7-5, 6-3 decision over Ines Deheza.
Anna Mamalat grabbed the first of three consecutive singles victories for the Aggies that tied the match at 3-3. Mamalat defeated Ellen Tsay 6-1, 7-5. Texas A&M's Nazari Urbina downed Krista Hardebeck 6-3, 7-6 and the Aggies' Stefania Hristov beat Natalie Dillon 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Stanford earned the doubles point, despite an 8-3 loss by Ahn and Gibbs to Stancu and Hristov. Stacey Tan and Tsay defeated the Aggies' Wen Sun and Sanchez-Quintanar 8-4, and Stanford's Dillon and Hardebeck secured the doubles point with an 8-5 win over Deheza and Paula Deheza.
In its second season under coach Howard Joffe, Texas A&M (26-4) made its first appearance in the championship match after reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals for the first time in school history.
''The trajectory and speed we've come from nowhere, so to speak, is somewhat startling,'' Joffe said.

May 22nd, 2013 10:30 AM

tie_breaker

Re: Www 2013 Ncaa Team Tournament

Stanford Head Coach Lele Forood
"It's a great feeling. This has been a great team for a long time. A lot of these players are juniors and seniors who have contributed heavily to the win. For Kristie Ahn to clinch is just poetic justice because she's been the missing player for the last two years (due to injuries) at the end of the season, and we weren't able to get it done without her, and when we got her back, we got it done."

"I felt bad for Nicole early on. I wanted her to find a way to get back in the match. Early in the second set, she said, 'I have to win this match. I have to do things differently.' And so it was her urgency and I think she found a little more energy. I think she felt a little sluggish in her legs early in the match and her opponent was playing beautifully, extremely well. But she found some energy, was able to plug away, get the momentum in her favor and things got rolling for her after that."

Stanford junior Kristie Ahn:
"Honestly, it's such a clichť, but words really can't explain this one. From my freshman year, I've wanted this moment, and I've been bugged by injuries, and to clinch makes it that much better. When we played USC in the round of 16, I had a shot. It could've come down to me and I could've clinched, but she played well, and I didn't get that and was pretty upset. Last night I was thinking, `How sick would it be if I could clinch tomorrow?' And when I got to 2-2 in the third set, I was smiling. I was having the best time of my life because I was thinking about how absurd it was that it was coming down to me."

"She (Urbina) started shanking balls and pushing a little bit. But I was like, this is it. Watching Krista last night was so inspiring, and I kind of drew from that. I can't tell you the amount of good energy I felt, how absurd that it was coming down to a 4-2, 4-3 match in the finals, it's crazy. And I started smiling uncontrollably. Life does not get more absurdly wonderful than this."

"My team is a bunch of nerds. We love politics. I can't tell you the dinner conversations we have. It's too much about substance."

Stanford junior Nicole Gibbs:
"I've had a leadership role on this team, and it's really hard to see your No. 1 player go down 6-0, 6-0. We saw that yesterday with Florida, when I was lucky enough to rattle a couple off against Lauren Embree. That's a tough blow to come back from, so I think just sitting there thinking about the impact I was having on my team from losing just made me dig a little bit deeper, get through being tired, being exhausted from all the energy we've been putting into this week as captains, and just push through. Evidently it worked. It was the weirdest match I've ever played in my life, but I'll take it today."

"This means so much more to me than any of the individual titles last year. Obviously it's awesome to have all three under my belt, but this was the one I wanted. I came back to school after having such a good year to chase after this title, and having it just means so, so much. It's everything I ever could have wanted. I'm so happy I got it."

Quotes:

Texas A&M Head Coach Howard Joffe

(On the teamís rapid improvement overall and success this season)

This is the first time as a head coach that Iíve made it to the Round of 16. Iíve only been at Texas A&M for two years. If you want a synopsis of the season, the trajectory of our team is rather sharp. Two years ago we were ranked 33, last year 17 and this year weíll probably end the year either No. 2 or 3. We obviously have a very, very fine team. It is not shocking to me that we were here in the final match. We do have very, very good players, and the trajectory and the speed that we have come from nowhere so to speak is somewhat startling even to the head coach.

Just simply at the level of such a meteoric rise, from middle of the pack to being right there near the top, it is a little bit startling. From the point of the viewer, there is no question that the eight ladies on our team are awful good. With respect to todayís match, I certainly donít feel like we played our very best, and we still came within a couple of points here and there of actually winning a title. We have a very good team, so in that respect itís not so surprising.

(On No. 2 singles)

The score line doesnít necessarily do justice to the match, particularly with respect to the third set. Tina (Stancu) was up 2-love in the beginning of that set. Anyone that watched the match in its entirety, the quality of tennis of that match was very high, two very fine athletes moving, hitting the ball very hard and intense, so it just had the quality feel that it could change on a point here and a point there, which it did. I wouldnít have bet a lot that we were going to come back from 5-2 match point, and yet when Tina ended up saving a match point to having the advantage, it didnít feel like too much of a stretch for her to get back into the match.

The score maybe belies a little bit. 6-2 is probably not the most accurate, but Ahn really, really is a very fine tennis player and she played well.

(on the emotion of the team to start the match)

I think in the doubles we suffered from not playing our best doubles. In the doubles, I felt like we were playing a little tentatively. Not at No. 1, the Romanians played awful well, but in the other two doubles, I felt like we were a little tentative. Other than that, there was no sign of being over awed by the occasion. They really got after it and so did Stanford.

Texas A&M Senior Nazari Urbina

We are really happy for the things that we achieved this year. We had a great team. The girls are just great girls, great persons, they are just great teammates. Iím really happy for the team. Obviously we wish we could have won tonight, but that is how things go. It was a tough match. Stanford, they played great. All of the girls kept fighting until the end. That is how things are, but we are really happy for all the achievements this year.

Congrats to Stanford. This may be the toughest road any team in any sport has ever had to an NCAA title. The Card had to beat the other four best teams in the country -- the three SEC tri-champions and the undefeated PAC-12 champion USC. It's an extraordinary achievement to win the title in this situation when there was so little separating the top 5 or 6 teams.

I would stop short of calling any of Stanford's victories upsets or calling the title run improbable. Everyone knew that Stanford was much better than its No. 12 seed indicated, for three reasons:

(1) Stanford always had the best player in the country, defending NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs, but this fact was not reflected in the seedings. Nicole dabbled with pro tournaments during the year and had little to prove during the regular season, so her dual performance was so-so. But there was no question that an NCAA team title was the one college tennis goal she had yet to fulfill - one that she came oh-so-close to achieving freshman year. Her game relies a lot on motivation and there was no question she would be highly motivated. This showed most clearly when Gibbs obliterated the current No. 1 player who stole Stanford's 2011 title, Lauren Embree, and left her with a bagel and a breadstick. Gibbs dominance was beautiful, and her energy clearly inspires everyone around her like no other athlete I've ever seen.

(2) Apart from Gibbs and Tan, this team relied heavily on youth (e.g. Hardebeck) and a player recovering from injury (e.g. Ahn). You knew these players would start slow but would have a steep learning curve, and they'd be reliable in the end.

(3) All NCAA sports do an embarrassing job of seeding teams, and there's no question the PAC-12 teams were horribly underseeded in this women's tennis bracket. If you look at any model with firm statistical foundations (e.g. look at the Massey ratings for women's college tennis), USC should have been No. 1 and Stanford should have been No. 7, roughly. Instead USC was No. 5 and Stanford was No. 12. It's pathetic that the NCAA that engages so many institutions of higher education can't use basic statistical methods to rank teams. Stanford had a much harder road to the title than it should have had, and it's great the team could overcome that.

So the run was hardly improbable, but it's still truly impressive. Three of the four matches were oh-so-close and came down to a 4-3 win with a three-set decisive match that could've gone either way. Each of those matches had a different clincher -- Tsay, Hardebeck, and then Ahn, while Gibbs set the tone by closing out each of her matches at No. 1 decisively. This is a run clearly worthy of legendary status.

Having watched so many championship teams at Stanford...by far...this is the most exciting and memorable championship run and one of the most challenging

Indeed, being the #12 seed created more obstacles a tougher draw than it should have been. I agree that a #7 seed would have been more fitting but somehow the Cards dug deep into the trenches and pulled it off so the victory is well deserved

We all joked that Mal turning pro, Stanford played down 0-1 to start each match...hence, we saw so many 4-3 thrillers

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